Teachers to wear red in Friday protest

Friday, May 14 has been declared “Red Day” by the Trinidad and Tobago Unified Teachers’ Association (TTUTA), and the 14,000 teachers throughout TT have been asked to wear red to school as a symbol of support in the ongoing negotiations between TTUTA and the Chief Personnel Officer (CPO). Speaking at a media conference at its head office in Curepe yesterday, TTUTA president Trevor Oliver also said the CPO’s office would be picketed by approximately 160 persons, comprising TTUTA’s General Council, and conference of delegates while negotiations are in progress. In addition, teachers have also been asked to continue wearing a red ribbon in the following week to demonstrate their solidarity with the union while negotiations continue.

Labelling the latest offer by the CPO “a turn-off and unacceptable,” Oliver said the organisation was devising a programme of action to deal with the situation. TTUTA’s second vice-president, Orville Carrington, explained that the current negotiations were a continuation of the last agreement which spanned the period 1999 - 2002. He revealed that the CPO and TTUTA had agreed to conduct an external labour market survey in which the qualifications and salaries of persons outside of teaching had been examined. As a result of this survey, Carrington said proposals were arrived at and offered to the CPO. However, he said more emphasis had to be placed on teachers in Grades One to Four, which represents persons now entering the teaching profession and secondary school teachers. 

TTUTA’s general secretary Peter Wilson said the bulk of teachers in the service were in Grades Three and Four, which represents primary and secondary school teachers respectively. Wilson described the latest offer by the CPO as “insulting and paltry,” adding  “it was not in the best interest of education,” and said there was a need to ensure teachers are paid properly and the same as persons outside of the profession with the same qualifications. He concluded that if Government was serious about achieving Vision 2020, they would invest the necessary funding to reform the education system, as well as attract persons to the profession and to retain personnel. Carrington said while the CPO has rejected TTUTA’s current offer, it was not on the basis of not having the necessary money, but more “an unwillingness to pay.”

Questioning whether the Government could afford not to pay teachers, Carrington said many experienced persons were leaving due to lucrative offers from other Caribbean islands, and there was an urgent need to stem the tide. Asked whether TTUTA had attached a time frame in which these problems had to be resolved, Oliver said “while we are in the throes of a serious crisis, TTUTA would like to solve this amicably.” However, he did not rule out more drastic action saying “a total shut-down of the system looms very large if Government does not meet our requests.” “We anticipate that it would not be very long as people’s patience is wearing thin and we are very unhappy,” he concluded. Oliver also said the Ministry of Education should be establishing the promised “help desk” shortly to offer assistance to the 800- plus persons who have not yet been paid their arrears of increments for the period 1987 - 1995.